By the time all the rebels were settled into their positions the end of the hour was nearly upon them. There was practically no time to even wonder if their information was a hoax before the marching of steps came from around the corners and they were surrounded by a literal army on both sides. These knights did not dive straight into combat however. They stood a tentative distance away from the rebels, the two forces glaring at each other until their leader came out from their ranks to confront Roko.
"Good afternoon gentlemen." Their leader said cordially, "I see you've been alerted to our little visit. Pray tell, who spoiled the surprise?"
"Your rotting stench is what tipped you off." Roko retorted.
"Pleasant as always." Their leader curled his nose at Roko, "Now I know we're all geared up to fight but you must understand that we are just here to rescue a kidnapped kid. Her mother was very distraught to find him missing. If you just give him back, we might be able to leave peacefully for today."
"And I would love to do that under normal circumstance and assuming the situation was exactly as you described." Roko crossed his arms, "However, it is not and what's more, the child in question doesn't want to return. At least quite yet."
The Starry Knight took a deep disappointed breath as he continued, "You know...you are not the heroes in this scenario. You took a mother's child. The people will not be happy to hear this."
"The people are too impoverished to care about what's happening down here." Roko half lied, "And need I remind you that the kid himself doesn't want to go home? I could call your bosses abusive and with the support of their own child, who else would they believe?"
"You really think you can get away with this?" the leader shook his head.
"You really think you will succeed here?" Roko countered.
"You have no idea how powerful the Starry Knights truly are."
"I might have some idea." Roko scoffed.
"Very well. If you're so confident then we'll get this rescue operation underway. With you as the villains of course."
"Who are you spewing this narrative to, the rats? All that gravitas and no audience to speak of. You parents were right, those drama classes really were a waste."
Roko was just spitballing retorts at this point but this one clearly hit a nerve with the poor Starry Knight captain as his eyes bulged in sheer barely contained rage, worrying even his own men around him.
"Right. Well." the leader said pulling back his traumatic outburst with the nonchalance of someone who had heard this conversation a thousand times before, "I think we've wasted enough time now, don't you agree men? Time to get on with the slaughter."
"Finally, something reasonable." Roko sighed.
"Men! A young mother misses her child dearly and it's our job to get him back! Are you ready men?!"
The Starry Knights on both sides let out a rallying and affirming cry.
"And let us not forget, the one who manages to kidnap Corissa and bring her to Sirius will be handsomely rewarded!"
"Oh come on!" Roko cried as the Starry Knights began charging at them, "And you're calling US the kidnappers?!"
What followed next was a fierce battle that Roko found himself only a small part of. Naturally they were right in front of their own base but Roko never really considered that this was basically home turf for his own forces. Without any word or training, without any consideration on his part as leader really, the Earthbounds were doing things like pushing the Starry Knights into the channels and letting them get swept away while remaining too far from the edges to have the same done to them. Of course, Momo was also supplying a healthy amount of reinforcement magic to fortify their forces but that seemed to matter little in the flow of the fight. Even as the Starry Knights did their best to give the rebels a taste of their own medicine, the rebels were aware enough to rescue each other before any plummeted into the channels like their opponents. Maybe some of Roko's teachings had rubbed off on them as the rebels were also quick to cover for each other during these rescues. Though Roko was not about to give himself credit for that.
It wasn't long before Starry Knights began dropping from the cistern hole like Roko had anticipated. If they had more numbers, Roko would've left a defensive line to stab at the drop ins to immediately punish them even while they were submerged. Roko took the opportunity anyway to stab at some of the drop ins with his sword but the other knights quickly pulled themselves onto land to push him away. Roko wasn't about to handle this third army by himself so he quickly retreated to the frontlines as the invaders ran in to raid the base only to quickly find the last defensive line that Roko had set up. From there, Roko just had to keep a careful eye on these infiltrators so they wouldn't try to attack their frontlines from behind. Perhaps it might've been easier to just pile all their forces together in the cafeteria and formed one big defensive line to push back against the Starry Knights. But the Starry Knights were simply too numerous. At some point they'd be fighting on top of corpses and it would've been a whole mess. Separating the forces gave them the best chance to not just survive but win. They weren't doing badly at all on all fronts. All that needed to happen was Roko single handedly preventing their frontlines from getting pincered.
"Get them!" The Starry Knights roared as they stormed into the dining room where Varis and the remaining rebels were ready and waiting to meet them.
Naga watched with haunted eyes, recognizing a few faces in the Starry Knights that had so openly and friendly greeted him as he passed by them in the morning now twisted into a ferocious sneer as they clashed with the Earthbounds. Medeia and Pluteum and Aranea were huddled next to a calm Corissa who gently hugged them reassuringly.
"Don't worry." she smiled, "Varis won't lose to anyone."
She was right. Varis was not having trouble with any of the Starry Knights, putting them down one by one with a stroke of his sword. The problem was that some of those knights got back up and even when one fell, a dozen more would take their place. There was not one knight who could stand up to him but a dozen were able to hold him down. Varis couldn't recklessly throw around his spells either in fear of hitting his allies in the process. The rest of the Earthbounds were equally overworked, Momo's reinforcement magic being the only thing keeping them ahead of their opponents at least for now. Reinforcements were still over 10 minutes away and they were starting to get overwhelmed already.
"Grab the princess!" One Starry Knight who broke through their defenses cried out as he busted down the door to the kitchen and started grabbing towards Corissa who stood in front of the rest of the refugees, close to the door.
Corissa yelped and tried batting away at the grasping hands, barely keeping the knight from getting a solid grip on her.
"You let her go!"
Pluteum's mom shouted and smashed the Starry Knight over the head with a pan. The stunned and dazed Starry Knight dropped to the ground unconscious.
"T-Thank you." Corissa gasped, a bit shaken.
"Come on, surely a princess like you has more spunk than that." Plueum's mom chuckled, resting the pan over her shoulder.
"If they're going to start coming in here we'll need to defend ourselves." Another refugee nodded, "Everyone grab a weapon!"
The non-combatants all began muttering in agreement and began arming themselves, grabbing cups, pans, woks, forks and knives from around the kitchen.
"Get the kids to the back!" Another refugee shouted and the crowd began moving in agreement.
"Come on now." Pluteum's mom said, reaching a hand out to her son.
"I wanna fight too!" Pluteum shouted, holding his hands up for some sort of weapon to be given to him.
"You're too young for that, Pluteum." His mom sighed, "Don't worry. We can defend ourselves just fine without you."
"But if dad isn't here, I have to protect mom! That's what I promised dad a long time ago!"
"That's..." Pluteum's mom sighed but had trouble holding back a big smile and a bit of blush, "That was before your dad became a policeman, okay? And you're still too young to start fighting at your age."
"Nuh uh!" Pluteum argued, "We can fight too! Right Medeia?!"
"Fight..." The young girl shivered but slowly began to work up some courage, "R-Right! I want to help my dad fight too! I'd rather he not fight at all but if I have to-"
"Get over here!"
Another Starry Knight burst into the room, ready to harass them but one of their staff managed to kick him in the balls and then bash him over the head again.
"They're fighting back! Arm yourselves!"
"T-That's not good!" One refugee yelped as the Starry Knights waiting to burst in began to draw their swords.
Naga finally had enough and ran off to the door, much to the protest of many of the people there.
"I am Nagaraja Nakshatra! My mom is Ashlesha Nakshatra, a Planetary Star and my dad is Sirius himself! I command all Starry Knights to stand down right now!"
"You're too young to command us, young prince!" The nearest Starry Knight sneered, "But thanks for coming out all this way for us. Let's get you out of here!"
"No!" Naga shouted and tried to pull away as the Starry Knight grabbed onto his arm.
"Let him go!"
A ball suddenly smashed into the Starry Knight's face, not really doing any damage but doing enough for him to recoil back in pain. Pluteum and Medeia quickly ran up next to Naga and began kicking the knights in the shin. The Starry Knights cried out more in annoyance than in pain but the kids were persistent enough to push them away from Naga.
"Why you little!" One deranged Starry Knight raised his sword against the kids.
The adults gasped in shock and horror but before they could react, Aranea was suddenly in front of the knight and kicked him in the face, hitting him with enough force that he practically did a backflip in the air before getting laid flat across the ground.
"Aranea?!" Naga blinked in surprise.
"Good work, Aranea." Roko's voice came through in the young girl's head through their Master Seal's connection, "Keep them away from Naga if you can. If you need any stat adjustment, just tell me."
"O-Okay." Aranea nodded bravely.
"W-What now?" Medeia gulped, the Starry Knight around them having now taken a cautious step back at the appearance of Aranea.
"If...if the knights are after me then I'll just endanger everyone here." Naga gulped, "I have to lead them away! I'm going to escape into the sewers!"
"We'll come with!" Pluteum grinned, "We need to stick together!"
"Aranea, can you open up a path for us?" Naga asked.
Aranea nodded and suddenly jumped up at the nearest Starry Knight, kicking them in the face as well.
"Pluteum no!" His mom cried out in protest.
"Sorry mom!" Pluteum said with a grin as he followed Naga and Medeia away from the kitchen, "My friends need me!"
Against astronomical odds, Aranea was able to leap from face to face, knocking knights away from every side and opening up a path for her friends to escape. Next came the cistern where some Starry Knights were climbing out of the water only for Aranea to knock them back inside as they ran past them as well.
"Get them!" one Starry Knight yelled as they began grasping at the kids from the water.
The kids all cried out in surprise and fear and quickly huddled against the opposite wall, running past them as fast as they can.
"Young prince!" Some remaining Starry Knights quickly pulled themselves up out of the water to chase Naga only for Roko to get in their way, slashing them away from the kids.
"Reinforcements arrive in about 10 minutes." He said calmly to the escaping kids, "Once everyone here is safe, we'll come looking for you."
"Thanks Roko!" Medeia nodded.
Past the corridor into the cistern were the two pathways that split off to the left and the right which were all filled with rebels and knights fighting each other.
"W-What now?" Medeia gulped.
"Jump!"
Filled with a strange power, Naga jumped off the corner of the sewer pathway, sailing over a sizable canal to the pathways on the other side. Following his lead, Pluteum and Medeia also made the surprising jump with ease.
"Take care of them."
Aranea nodded and made the easy jump over to the other side of the channel as well, the quartet of kids all running off into the darkness of the sewers.
"This way!" Pluteum cried, taking up the lead, "I know a good place we can hide away at!"
Pluteum lead his friends around corners and hallways, moving with a familiar ease and confidence. The loud roar of the battle soon faded behind them as the kids did their best to run as far away from the fighting as possible. The dead silence that replaced it was almost creepy to hear save for the soft footsteps and gasps of the running children. Pluteum lead them to a dead end, to a large iron door with big iron bars that were spaced far apart enough for the children to squeeze through. Through this door was a room. A dead end room with seemingly no purpose but it was at least lit by one or two small torches.
"Okay." Pluteum stopped in the middle of the room, "We should be safe now."
His friends all collapsed on the ground in front of him, catching their breath as they finally took a break.
"Ah, that was scary." Medeia was the first to speak up, releasing a large amount of tension that had wound up inside her body.
"Nice job, Aranea." Pluteum gave the young girl a thumbs up, "You're the best!"
Aranea just nodded, too tired and anxious to react shyly.
"...I'm sorry." Naga said, "It's my fault your family and friends are getting attacked right now."
"Don't worry about it." Pluteum smiled, "They were after Corissa too so some of them will probably still be there to attack the base."
"But I'm the main reason." Naga's hands tightened over his pants, "If it wasn't for my mom...if I hadn't run away from home, I would not have ever endangered you all. I'm sorry."
Naga bowed to a pair of befuddled rebel children who were too young to know how to react to this apology.
"Well...to be honest..." Pluteum began, "When I heard you were Sirius' son, I was immediately suspicious. But when I learned you ran away from him, I thought, 'Yeah, I would've run away too'. So I figured you might be a pretty okay guy if you could tell that Sirius was a bad guy."
"I thought you were just a rich kid." Medeia added, "I didn't know you were Sirius' son until someone told me. But it was so much fun playing with you that I just kinda forgot about it. Before I knew it, I kinda didn't want you to leave. So I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen!"
"You guys..." Naga looked at his friends, touched by their acceptance.
Pluteum and Medeia just smiled warmly back at him.
…
"By the way." Naga turned to Aranea, "Since when were you that strong, Aranea? You were kicking Starry Knights away left and right."
"Oh that's thanks to some magic her dad can do." Medeia explained as Aranea looked around nervously, "Apparently it can make her super strong."
"Then why didn't you do that when we were doing our trials huh?" An annoyed Naga said as he reached over and began pulling Aranea by the cheeks, "Were you trying to make me lose?!"
"N-No! I'm sowwy..." Aranea said as Naga continued to pull at her cheeks.
"Hey, give her a break." Pluteum chuckled, "You still won at least half the games didn't you?"
"I could've won them all!" Naga scowled as he finally let go of Aranea.
"Like I would've let that happen." Medeia scoffed.
"Khhhh, this annoys me so much." Naga growled, "Aranea, you owe me once we get back!"
"Aranea's only one who can actually fight right now!" Pluteum cried.
"This and that are two different things!"
For a long time this group of small children huddled around in the room, having expended all their energy to talk but still too nervous to take a much needed nap. So they simply sat around waiting for someone to come pick them up.
"How long do we have to stay here?" Medeia asked.
"Roko said he'd send someone to pick us up." Naga stated.
"How long's that going to take?"
"Well they're still fighting each other." Pluteum added, "I wonder if Corissa's safe."
"What about your own mom?" Naga scoffed.
"My dad always says she's stronger than even he is so she's probably fine."
"I...think that's an exaggeration."
"Nah, you saw her smack that guy with the pan right? She can fight just fine."
"Yeah but she's not as strong as your dad probably."
"I dunno, my dad usually listens to whatever she says though."
"That's not strength, that's marriage."
"What, is your mom the same with Sirius?" Medeia asked.
"My mom and dad...don't really interact..."
An awkward silence followed as no one knew how to follow up with that.
"How long is this going to take?!" Medeia moaned.
"Give it a rest!" Pluteum shouted, "It hasn't even been that long!"
"But I'm bored!"
"It probably won't take that long. Look, maybe that's them now!"
Aranea turned as she heard the cracking of the lock on a door. But her instincts were already warning her of danger. That no one had called out to find them? That raised alarm bells. Aranea stood up as, just like she had feared, a trio of armed adult Starry Knights walked into their little room.
"Finally found you." their leader sneered.